Community social work practice has made tremendous progress in reaching out to marginalized groups in urban and rural areas of the country, with social work scholars bringing many of the key concepts ...
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Community social work practice has made tremendous progress in reaching out to marginalized groups in urban and rural areas of the country, with social work scholars bringing many of the key concepts underlying community practice into fields like health promotion, fostering approaches ranging from involving beauticians in providing domestic violence services, to developing community gardens to address food security and educational initiatives. The role and importance of assessment in development of health and social services are well accepted in the field and represent the fundamental building blocks for the creation of any form of social intervention. Needs assessments are, without question, the most common form of assessment in these fields. They typically, however, result in a rather narrow view of a community that stresses disease risk profiles and lists of various social problem categories. Nevertheless, unlike needs assessments, asset assessments bring a range of factors and considerations to the creation of an intervention that are guided by participatory democratic principles and processes. Although needs assessments can also be guided by participatory principles, they generally are professionally-driven and do not stress capacity enhancement in the process. The emphasis on participatory democracy during asset assessments distances them from their needs counterpart through the use of values, the language used to communicate, and how research methods get conceptualized and carried out. Community asset assessments can be viewed as a goal, a strategy, a set of guiding principles, a method, and a process. These different perspectives make a consensus definition of a capital difficult to arrive at in both scholarly and practice realms. Consequently, it is best to view asset assessments from an evolutionary point of view in order to appreciate the variety of perspectives, tensions, and potential for achieving positive social change. In essence, these assessments are both an instrument of discovery as well as an intervention to achieve community change.Less

Asset Assessments and Community Social Work Practice

Melvin DelgadoDenise Humm-Delgado

Published in print: 2013-01-18

Community social work practice has made tremendous progress in reaching out to marginalized groups in urban and rural areas of the country, with social work scholars bringing many of the key concepts underlying community practice into fields like health promotion, fostering approaches ranging from involving beauticians in providing domestic violence services, to developing community gardens to address food security and educational initiatives. The role and importance of assessment in development of health and social services are well accepted in the field and represent the fundamental building blocks for the creation of any form of social intervention. Needs assessments are, without question, the most common form of assessment in these fields. They typically, however, result in a rather narrow view of a community that stresses disease risk profiles and lists of various social problem categories. Nevertheless, unlike needs assessments, asset assessments bring a range of factors and considerations to the creation of an intervention that are guided by participatory democratic principles and processes. Although needs assessments can also be guided by participatory principles, they generally are professionally-driven and do not stress capacity enhancement in the process. The emphasis on participatory democracy during asset assessments distances them from their needs counterpart through the use of values, the language used to communicate, and how research methods get conceptualized and carried out. Community asset assessments can be viewed as a goal, a strategy, a set of guiding principles, a method, and a process. These different perspectives make a consensus definition of a capital difficult to arrive at in both scholarly and practice realms. Consequently, it is best to view asset assessments from an evolutionary point of view in order to appreciate the variety of perspectives, tensions, and potential for achieving positive social change. In essence, these assessments are both an instrument of discovery as well as an intervention to achieve community change.

Much has been made of the complex social arrangements that girls and women navigate, but little scholarly or popular attention has focused on what friendship means to men. Drawing on in-depth ...
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Much has been made of the complex social arrangements that girls and women navigate, but little scholarly or popular attention has focused on what friendship means to men. Drawing on in-depth interviews with nearly 400 men and 125 women, the author takes readers on a guided tour of male friendships, explaining what makes them work, why they are vital to the health of individuals and communities, and how to build the kinds of friendships that can lead to longer and happier lives. The interviews with women help map the differences in what men and women seek from friendships and what, if anything, men and women can learn from each other. The guiding feature of the book is Greif's typology of male friendships: he dispels the myth that men don't have friends, showing that men have must, trust, just, and rust friends. A must friend is the best friend a man must call with earthshaking news. A trust friend is liked and trusted but not necessarily held as close as a must friend. Just friends are casual acquaintances, while rust friends have a long history together and can drift in and out of each other's lives, essentially picking up where they left off. Understanding the role each of these types of friends plays across men's lives, from youth to advanced age, reveals developmental patterns, such as how men cope with stress and conflict, and how they make and maintain friendships. We also learn how notions of masculinity and the women in their lives shape their friendships, and how their friends keep them active and happy. Through the words of the men themselves and detailed profiles of men from their twenties to their nineties, readers learn what friendships offer men and how to work on their own friendships.Less

Buddy System : Understanding Male Friendships

Geoffrey Greif

Published in print: 2008-09-25

Much has been made of the complex social arrangements that girls and women navigate, but little scholarly or popular attention has focused on what friendship means to men. Drawing on in-depth interviews with nearly 400 men and 125 women, the author takes readers on a guided tour of male friendships, explaining what makes them work, why they are vital to the health of individuals and communities, and how to build the kinds of friendships that can lead to longer and happier lives. The interviews with women help map the differences in what men and women seek from friendships and what, if anything, men and women can learn from each other. The guiding feature of the book is Greif's typology of male friendships: he dispels the myth that men don't have friends, showing that men have must, trust, just, and rust friends. A must friend is the best friend a man must call with earthshaking news. A trust friend is liked and trusted but not necessarily held as close as a must friend. Just friends are casual acquaintances, while rust friends have a long history together and can drift in and out of each other's lives, essentially picking up where they left off. Understanding the role each of these types of friends plays across men's lives, from youth to advanced age, reveals developmental patterns, such as how men cope with stress and conflict, and how they make and maintain friendships. We also learn how notions of masculinity and the women in their lives shape their friendships, and how their friends keep them active and happy. Through the words of the men themselves and detailed profiles of men from their twenties to their nineties, readers learn what friendships offer men and how to work on their own friendships.

The world of today is aging and is doing so at a great speed. People are living longer and this represents one of the greatest achievements of the past century, but often an extension of life ...
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The world of today is aging and is doing so at a great speed. People are living longer and this represents one of the greatest achievements of the past century, but often an extension of life expectancy does not correspond with an extension of healthy lives. Aging populations, particularly those with a high percentage of oldest old, are often burdened with chronic conditions that require extended long-term care. Who is going to provide this care and in what forms are key problems that will soon affect a growing number of postindustrial and mid-income countries. This book explores the organization of long-term care in Italy, a country already in the midst of an eldercare crisis. There the answer to this problem has taken the shape of home eldercare assistance, an arrangement whereby long-term care services are bought in the market in the form of private and individualized assistance by families sometimes with economic support provided by the state. The providers of these services, commonly known as badanti (minders), are, for the most part, immigrant women, less often men, coming from different areas of the world. Caring for a Living analyzes the global, regional, and local processes that participated in the development of this new organization of care, paying close attention to the role that the state, Italian families, and the workers themselves play in shaping and in defining it.Less

Caring for a Living : Migrant Women, Aging Citizens, and Italian Families

Francesca Degiuli

Published in print: 2016-07-01

The world of today is aging and is doing so at a great speed. People are living longer and this represents one of the greatest achievements of the past century, but often an extension of life expectancy does not correspond with an extension of healthy lives. Aging populations, particularly those with a high percentage of oldest old, are often burdened with chronic conditions that require extended long-term care. Who is going to provide this care and in what forms are key problems that will soon affect a growing number of postindustrial and mid-income countries. This book explores the organization of long-term care in Italy, a country already in the midst of an eldercare crisis. There the answer to this problem has taken the shape of home eldercare assistance, an arrangement whereby long-term care services are bought in the market in the form of private and individualized assistance by families sometimes with economic support provided by the state. The providers of these services, commonly known as badanti (minders), are, for the most part, immigrant women, less often men, coming from different areas of the world. Caring for a Living analyzes the global, regional, and local processes that participated in the development of this new organization of care, paying close attention to the role that the state, Italian families, and the workers themselves play in shaping and in defining it.

This book examines the relationship between adolescents’ passage to adulthood and community adaptation, resiliency, and survival. It reviews the literature on initiation and rites of passage along ...
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This book examines the relationship between adolescents’ passage to adulthood and community adaptation, resiliency, and survival. It reviews the literature on initiation and rites of passage along with relevant concepts from community psychology, especially the notion of a psychological sense of community. Cross-cultural ethnographies and case studies offer examples of traditional initiation rites. Elements central to a psychological sense of community and community-oriented rites of passage are explored. Social service paradigms that promote independent programs designed to “fix” people are challenged. This book sets forth guiding principles and clear methods for putting into practice a whole-systems approach to youth development through rites of passage that involves connecting and enhancing environments and building competencies, which promote the positive development of children and youth in their families, in their schools, among their peers, and in their community, and with a strong connection to the natural world. Rites of passage language weaves a common story that links techniques for clinical practice in prevention with identification, treatment, and maintenance. When members of all sectors of a community, for example, professionals, parents, youth, and so forth, join together in learning the language of initiation and rites of passage they can collectively use this common language and shared techniques to improve interventions and therapy with adolescents and their families and integrate many different approaches, such as developmental assets, character education, asset-based community development, the social development model of youth development, academic and social-emotional learning, resiliency, and all education and youth development approaches.Less

Coming of Age the RITE Way : Youth and Community Development through Rites of Passage

David Blumenkrantz

Published in print: 2016-06-01

This book examines the relationship between adolescents’ passage to adulthood and community adaptation, resiliency, and survival. It reviews the literature on initiation and rites of passage along with relevant concepts from community psychology, especially the notion of a psychological sense of community. Cross-cultural ethnographies and case studies offer examples of traditional initiation rites. Elements central to a psychological sense of community and community-oriented rites of passage are explored. Social service paradigms that promote independent programs designed to “fix” people are challenged. This book sets forth guiding principles and clear methods for putting into practice a whole-systems approach to youth development through rites of passage that involves connecting and enhancing environments and building competencies, which promote the positive development of children and youth in their families, in their schools, among their peers, and in their community, and with a strong connection to the natural world. Rites of passage language weaves a common story that links techniques for clinical practice in prevention with identification, treatment, and maintenance. When members of all sectors of a community, for example, professionals, parents, youth, and so forth, join together in learning the language of initiation and rites of passage they can collectively use this common language and shared techniques to improve interventions and therapy with adolescents and their families and integrate many different approaches, such as developmental assets, character education, asset-based community development, the social development model of youth development, academic and social-emotional learning, resiliency, and all education and youth development approaches.

Community social work practice based on a capacity enhancement model offers tremendous potential for unifying communities consisting of groups from very different cultural backgrounds, and in the ...
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Community social work practice based on a capacity enhancement model offers tremendous potential for unifying communities consisting of groups from very different cultural backgrounds, and in the process of doing so, make physical changes in the community. This book emphasizes community and urban social work and explains how to create positive community environments in marginalized urban-based communities. The use of murals, gardens, playgrounds, and sculptures, for example provide social workers with an opportunity to identify, engage, and plan services with communities. These projects, in turn, are based upon a community's strengths and represent an effort at developing a community's capacity to help itself with assistance from professionals.Less

Community Social Work Practice in an Urban Context : The Potential of a Capacity-Enhancement Perspective

Melvin Delgado

Published in print: 1999-10-07

Community social work practice based on a capacity enhancement model offers tremendous potential for unifying communities consisting of groups from very different cultural backgrounds, and in the process of doing so, make physical changes in the community. This book emphasizes community and urban social work and explains how to create positive community environments in marginalized urban-based communities. The use of murals, gardens, playgrounds, and sculptures, for example provide social workers with an opportunity to identify, engage, and plan services with communities. These projects, in turn, are based upon a community's strengths and represent an effort at developing a community's capacity to help itself with assistance from professionals.

This book presents innovative interventions for youth with severe emotional and behavioral disorders. The book is designed to fill a gap between the knowledge base and clinical practice through its ...
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This book presents innovative interventions for youth with severe emotional and behavioral disorders. The book is designed to fill a gap between the knowledge base and clinical practice through its presentation of theory, practice parameters, training requirements, and research evidence. Featuring community-based and state-of-the-art services for youth with severe emotional and behavioral disorders and their families, this book describes each intervention in depth, along with the supporting evidence for its utility. Most chapters present a single intervention as an alternative to institutional care. Shared characteristics of these interventions include delivery of services in the community (homes, schools, and neighborhoods) provided largely by parents and paraprofessional staff. The interventions are appropriate to use in any of the child human services sectors and have been developed in the field with real-world child and family clients. In addition, they offer a reduced cost in comparison to institutional care. Several chapters address diagnostic-specific psychosocial and psychopharmacological treatments, which are likely to be provided as adjunctive treatment in a clinical setting.Less

Community Treatment for Youth : Evidence-Based Interventions for Severe Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Published in print: 2002-02-14

This book presents innovative interventions for youth with severe emotional and behavioral disorders. The book is designed to fill a gap between the knowledge base and clinical practice through its presentation of theory, practice parameters, training requirements, and research evidence. Featuring community-based and state-of-the-art services for youth with severe emotional and behavioral disorders and their families, this book describes each intervention in depth, along with the supporting evidence for its utility. Most chapters present a single intervention as an alternative to institutional care. Shared characteristics of these interventions include delivery of services in the community (homes, schools, and neighborhoods) provided largely by parents and paraprofessional staff. The interventions are appropriate to use in any of the child human services sectors and have been developed in the field with real-world child and family clients. In addition, they offer a reduced cost in comparison to institutional care. Several chapters address diagnostic-specific psychosocial and psychopharmacological treatments, which are likely to be provided as adjunctive treatment in a clinical setting.

The growth of the criminal justice system poses a number of significant problems that require ongoing research efforts by scholars across multiple disciplines. Despite the impact that the criminal ...
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The growth of the criminal justice system poses a number of significant problems that require ongoing research efforts by scholars across multiple disciplines. Despite the impact that the criminal justice system has on client populations served by social workers and related professions, there are few practical sources available to guide research in these settings. Conducting Research in Juvenile and Criminal Justice Settings: Strategies and Issues fills this gap and represents a cutting-edge yet user friendly book that will be of interest not only to researchers but also to graduate students and agency administrators. This book covers major issues in conducting field research with adults and juveniles and using extant and administrative data sources on criminal justice populations. In particular, the chapters explore the many challenges that often arise in criminal justice settings and offer practical strategies to issues such as how to gain and maintain IRB approval, how to manage a project across multiple agencies, courts, and institutions, and how to maintain relationships with key stakeholders. Furthermore, discussion of issues related to planning a research project in adult and juvenile justice settings, including research designs, recruitment, and retention, are delineated. An extensive bibliographic description of data sources, case studies, and research forms and letters is included.Less

Conducting Research in Juvenile and Criminal Justice Settings

Michael G. VaughnCarrie Pettus-DavisJeffrey J. Shook

Published in print: 2012-05-16

The growth of the criminal justice system poses a number of significant problems that require ongoing research efforts by scholars across multiple disciplines. Despite the impact that the criminal justice system has on client populations served by social workers and related professions, there are few practical sources available to guide research in these settings. Conducting Research in Juvenile and Criminal Justice Settings: Strategies and Issues fills this gap and represents a cutting-edge yet user friendly book that will be of interest not only to researchers but also to graduate students and agency administrators. This book covers major issues in conducting field research with adults and juveniles and using extant and administrative data sources on criminal justice populations. In particular, the chapters explore the many challenges that often arise in criminal justice settings and offer practical strategies to issues such as how to gain and maintain IRB approval, how to manage a project across multiple agencies, courts, and institutions, and how to maintain relationships with key stakeholders. Furthermore, discussion of issues related to planning a research project in adult and juvenile justice settings, including research designs, recruitment, and retention, are delineated. An extensive bibliographic description of data sources, case studies, and research forms and letters is included.

School social work practice research finds that consultation is among the most frequently performed practice tasks. Yet these studies never define the term or classify types of consultation. In ...
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School social work practice research finds that consultation is among the most frequently performed practice tasks. Yet these studies never define the term or classify types of consultation. In addition, there little professional social work literature on consultation and even less on school social work consultation. This book adapts the consultation theory and practice framework put forward by June Gallessich (1982) that defines consultation in specific terms and proposes that there are six models of consultation: Organizational consultation, program consultation, education and training consultation, mental health consultation, behavioral consultation, and clinical case consultation. They are distinguishable according to their problem focus, outcome goal, intervention methods, change processes, power base, and value system. Consultation services are an important pathway to help school systems fulfill their educational mission and to help school personnel become more effective in their professional work. It is consistent with current educational policy that recommends macro, mezzo, and micro interventions or multilevel responses to school needs, known as Response to Intervention (RtI). The overarching goal of the book is to provide school social workers with the knowledge, skill, and confidence to implement consultation services. Consultation is a powerful method to “realize the promise of the whole-school approach” and to help homes, schools, and communities promote school success and student well-being.Less

Consultation Theory and Practice : A Handbook for School Social Workers

Christine Anlauf Sabatino

Published in print: 2014-04-25

School social work practice research finds that consultation is among the most frequently performed practice tasks. Yet these studies never define the term or classify types of consultation. In addition, there little professional social work literature on consultation and even less on school social work consultation. This book adapts the consultation theory and practice framework put forward by June Gallessich (1982) that defines consultation in specific terms and proposes that there are six models of consultation: Organizational consultation, program consultation, education and training consultation, mental health consultation, behavioral consultation, and clinical case consultation. They are distinguishable according to their problem focus, outcome goal, intervention methods, change processes, power base, and value system. Consultation services are an important pathway to help school systems fulfill their educational mission and to help school personnel become more effective in their professional work. It is consistent with current educational policy that recommends macro, mezzo, and micro interventions or multilevel responses to school needs, known as Response to Intervention (RtI). The overarching goal of the book is to provide school social workers with the knowledge, skill, and confidence to implement consultation services. Consultation is a powerful method to “realize the promise of the whole-school approach” and to help homes, schools, and communities promote school success and student well-being.

This book provides a practical, step-by-step, hands-on guide for social work researchers, doctoral students, and professionals who are interested in conducting culturally competent research with ...
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This book provides a practical, step-by-step, hands-on guide for social work researchers, doctoral students, and professionals who are interested in conducting culturally competent research with diverse populations and groups. This book adopts ethnography as a meta-framework for conducting culturally competent research. Since its inception as an academic discipline, anthropology has developed theories, concepts, methods, and a significant body of substantive studies for the purposes of guiding cultural research, describing cultural groups and processes, and providing data needed for cross-cultural research and theory-building. Ethnography as a meta-framework for research suggests the following components of culturally competent research: (1) A collaborative social relationship with the study group and community; (2) Use of firsthand, long-term participant observation; (3) Use of self as research instrument; (4) Researcher as learner; (5) A contextual view of phenomena; (6) A holistic perspective; (7) An interactive-reactive research process; (8) A cross-cultural frame of reference; and (9) A spirit of discovery. This pocket guide describes each phase of research incorporating these components from framing and designing the study; to data collection, management, and analysis; to final analysis and report writing; and to dissemination to a variety of audiences. Inclusion of these elements ensures that the research is conducted with and close to the lived experience of the study groups. Culturally Competent Research provides a methodological framework for developing a rigorous social work knowledge base for research in an increasingly diverse and global society. Culturally competent research will help the social work profession understand the lived experiences of diverse populations, which will in turn help to shape social work practice and policy to the benefit of all.Less

Culturally Competent Research : Using Ethnography as a Meta-Framework

Mo Yee LeeAmy Zaharlick

Published in print: 2013-01-31

This book provides a practical, step-by-step, hands-on guide for social work researchers, doctoral students, and professionals who are interested in conducting culturally competent research with diverse populations and groups. This book adopts ethnography as a meta-framework for conducting culturally competent research. Since its inception as an academic discipline, anthropology has developed theories, concepts, methods, and a significant body of substantive studies for the purposes of guiding cultural research, describing cultural groups and processes, and providing data needed for cross-cultural research and theory-building. Ethnography as a meta-framework for research suggests the following components of culturally competent research: (1) A collaborative social relationship with the study group and community; (2) Use of firsthand, long-term participant observation; (3) Use of self as research instrument; (4) Researcher as learner; (5) A contextual view of phenomena; (6) A holistic perspective; (7) An interactive-reactive research process; (8) A cross-cultural frame of reference; and (9) A spirit of discovery. This pocket guide describes each phase of research incorporating these components from framing and designing the study; to data collection, management, and analysis; to final analysis and report writing; and to dissemination to a variety of audiences. Inclusion of these elements ensures that the research is conducted with and close to the lived experience of the study groups. Culturally Competent Research provides a methodological framework for developing a rigorous social work knowledge base for research in an increasingly diverse and global society. Culturally competent research will help the social work profession understand the lived experiences of diverse populations, which will in turn help to shape social work practice and policy to the benefit of all.

Diversity has become a keynote feature of our society and social workers are increasingly finding themselves working with clients from a multitude of backgrounds and cultures. In order to work ...
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Diversity has become a keynote feature of our society and social workers are increasingly finding themselves working with clients from a multitude of backgrounds and cultures. In order to work effectively with these groups and communities, it is imperative that they understand the significance of ethnicity and the ways in which it influences perceptions, behaviors, and responses to interventions. Knowledge is a prerequisite for such understanding and therefore critical for meaningful practice. However, knowledge is not the sole factor necessary for establishing social work relationships. The sensitivity of the practitioner to the culture and traditions of the client is equally important. This book offers a broad conceptual model applicable to working with any diverse ethnic population. Rather than discussing specific groups, it illustrates a model that can be universally applied to all populations. Beginning with the concept of the “ethnic lens” and its many dimensions, the book addresses social work with individuals, families, groups, and communities with separate chapters on ethnicity and services, healthcare, and policy. As each of these areas is examined through the lens, rather than through a description of specific ethnic characteristics or traits, it enables practitioners to become aware of their own lenses as well as those of others and thus to have greater awareness of how society, problems, the helping process, they themselves as social workers may be perceived. The book avoids stereotyping and generalizations as it provides comprehensive conceptual framework that can be used by students and practitioners.Less

Ethnicity and Social Work Practice

Carole B. CoxPaul H. Ephross

Published in print: 1998-02-19

Diversity has become a keynote feature of our society and social workers are increasingly finding themselves working with clients from a multitude of backgrounds and cultures. In order to work effectively with these groups and communities, it is imperative that they understand the significance of ethnicity and the ways in which it influences perceptions, behaviors, and responses to interventions. Knowledge is a prerequisite for such understanding and therefore critical for meaningful practice. However, knowledge is not the sole factor necessary for establishing social work relationships. The sensitivity of the practitioner to the culture and traditions of the client is equally important. This book offers a broad conceptual model applicable to working with any diverse ethnic population. Rather than discussing specific groups, it illustrates a model that can be universally applied to all populations. Beginning with the concept of the “ethnic lens” and its many dimensions, the book addresses social work with individuals, families, groups, and communities with separate chapters on ethnicity and services, healthcare, and policy. As each of these areas is examined through the lens, rather than through a description of specific ethnic characteristics or traits, it enables practitioners to become aware of their own lenses as well as those of others and thus to have greater awareness of how society, problems, the helping process, they themselves as social workers may be perceived. The book avoids stereotyping and generalizations as it provides comprehensive conceptual framework that can be used by students and practitioners.

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